University Library Blogs

Plumpp, Reed discuss music, African-American history Feb.6

by Aria Eckersley

Join the UIC Library in welcoming renowned scholars UIC Professor Emeritus Sterling Plumpp and Roosevelt University Professor Emeritus Dr. Christopher Reed for a discussion about the impact of music on African-American culture and history and the effect of the Great Migration on blues and jazz music in Chicago. The program, “Blues, Jazz, Gospel, Hip-Hop: A Continuum of African-American Culture in the Diaspora,” takes place on Thursday, February 6, at 4 p.m., in Richard J. Daley Library room 1-470.

Professor Plumpp taught English and African-American studies at UIC for thirty years until his retirement in 2001. He is an accomplished poet whose work draws on the rhythm and style of jazz and blues music. Plumpp has won multiple awards including the Carl Sandburg Literacy Award for Poetry in 1983.1 Chicago Tribune writer Howard Reich explained, “His song-like verses, copiously marked with slashes and spaces and commas, cry out to be heard…Plumpp’s poetry doesn’t just address blues and jazz, it exemplifies them.”2

Dr. Reed is an established historical scholar from Chicago. His research explores Chicago history, 19th and 20th century black Chicago history as well as urban politics. Dr. Reed has authored multiple books and essays about blacks in Chicago including The Chicago NAACP and the Rise of Black Professional Leadership, 1910-1966 (Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press, 1997) and The Rise of Chicago’s Black Metropolis, 1920-1929 (Urbana, IL: University of Illinois Press, 2011). Dr. Reed also serves as the general secretary of the Black Chicago History Forum.3